Uneasy Lies The Head

• Frumpple has created a hot tub in his secret bunker for Quinn
  • There is no drainage system
  • There is no windows
  • There IS NO WATER
  • Bob the resident wizard helps to fill the hot tub with scalding water
  • Frumpple gets scalded

• Kambingos lost his beads and was looking to replace them
  • Kambingos might have gone back home to the Feywilds

• Quinn tries to find info on the symbol
  • Symbol appears on the confiscated guns from the Skulking Knives
  • Fiendish (Devils/Demons) Symbol
• Quinn tries to find info on Teleport scroll
  • Spoke to Hugh Jass the guild wizard
  • Scroll is bound to specific plane
  • Scroll says desperate measures for desperate times, written by a male
• Quinn visits Maker to get more doses of Poison
  • Powerful poison named Bleeder costs 200G per dose
  • Shop owner named maker says it is possible to coat the ammunition with poison and deliver it

BACKGROUND

• Few weeks has passed since then
• Dragon sighting lasted for a few weeks
• Pit Nurash has gone back to sleep at the same mine

SESSION START

• Quinn and Frumpple meet in the guild meeting room
• Kambingos has gone on an extended leave and has a replacement for him
• New girl enters, name Etherea Nightshade
• Stranger has icy blue eyes and wears a runic necklace that pulses.
• She has a small frame and is relatively young
• Has poorly crafted daggers at her side, and also has a similarly runic sword
• Curious disposition and wisdom that belies her age
• She looks like she’s 13 years old, youngest and newest member of the free lancers
• She specialises in stealth
• Craig the guild master enters the room and introduces Ethera

MISSION

• Travel to Ylraphon, a port side town that is sectioned into three parts
• City seems to have been destroyed and rebuilt in the past !
• Next to the flooded Swamp !
• Ylraphon proper is the section recently built and is considered the actual town.
  • This section is under active effort to expand (?) !
• The Old city is the section that is more ramshackle and delapitated !
  • Rumours have hit that refugees that have moved from a nearby town called Mulmaster
• The town called Mulmaster were recently destroyed due to a cult of elementals that razed the town !
• The cult however, has been dealt with and refugees move to The Old City
• The Third section Is Outer Ylraphon, that were flooded by and reclaimed by the swamp

• Contact is the city’s mayor
• Mayor requested that the area is uncharacteristically warm
• There is a heat wave
• The people seems to be similarly affected, becoming angry and agitated. Both the city Proper and the refugees in the Old City.
• Some refugees even find their way Into the city proper. They are allowed in the city proper in the day, but are required to leave by nightfall. Some still stay through illegal means.
• Increase in crimes like fights
• Our job is to find out who is behind this, and who is causing the reason this phenomenon
• Mayor thinks it is caused by someone
• Mayor’s name is Carver

• The guild porter brings the team to Ylraphon Proper's townhall
• We meet Linden, an old ? sheriff that have been pulled out of retirement to help with the ongoing unrest
• We see a goliath named Fren, that has been locked up in one of the cells
• Linden mentions that the Mayor is currently meeting with the city's lords
• Etherea sneaks into the meeting room, while Quinn and Frumpple distracts Linden
• Etherea hides in the background while the lords yell at the Fire Genasi lord.

• Quinn asked Linden about the disaster that destroyed the town that happened decades ago, might be irrelevant
• Linden says the swamp will swallow whatever portions of the city that is not being maintained
• Linden says Ilasera is helping with the reclaimation efforts. Linden mentions that there might be pixies or bog creatures that lives in the Swamp
• Ilasera lives in the forest.
• Linden says that they have their hands full dealing with the inner city's problems

• Frumpple goes to talk to Fren
• Fren mentions someone dissed him and his friend Sebastian and he got into a fistfight
• Fren is jailed for his safety
• Fren mentions that the townspeople are convinced that the Emberstars are the cause of the heat wave in the city
• Emberstar Exchange is a forgestation that creates weapons and ships them everywhere.
• Fren mentions that Sebastian is might be at the Emberstar Exchange.
• Fren gets let out by Linden after a while.

• Quinn and Frumpple enters the meeting room
• Mayor Carver throws the lords out, who are
• Human man: Serge Afapanoth, who is genuinely angry, full of himself and has a big ego. Convinced that Sebastian is the culprit
• Human Lady: Yuki Chiang, more reserved, not too quick to jump to conclusions but still accuses Sebastian
• Sebastian Emberstar: Fire Genasi, He is putting up a front and an amicable approach, but secretly upset at the accusations.
• Carver explains that the crimes are escalating, and wants us to investigate the cause.
• Carver wishes us to resolve the issue by dawn for 1000GP worth of payment. 500GP extra if it can be done today.

• The team leaves and manages to catch the tail end of an argument between Serge and Sebastian. Serge accuses Sebastian and yells that the town should have killed him like the rest of the cult of elementals.
• The team approaches Sebastian after Serge leaves and asked about Sebastian

• Etherea analyses Sebastian from a distance
• Sebastian hopes that the team will be able to clear the Emberstar's name
• Sebastian is now a little cooler now that the argument is over
• Sebastian says the exchange hires craftsmen as long as they are capable, and the workers are paid well
• 3 forge workers, including Fren, Tayle (the trainee), and Frank.
• 2 retail workers, Crystalbella and Jaime.
• Working in a port city allows access to exports, and rent is cheap here.
• People have been slandering the Emberstar exchange like Serge.
• Apparently Serge is allegedly angry that the Emberstar is venturing into jewelry, which is Serge's industry .
• Etherea yoinks his coin pouch.

• We visit the Moonwater Temple to investigate the desecrated temple incident
• Greeted by a priest, behind him we see the temple staff (Jin and Leah), trying to scrub grafitti off the walls and fishing rats out of the bath
• The grafitti symbol is from the Cult of the Eternal Flame
• Priest is Andorran Bree.
• Bree mentioned that the damage was discovered this morning.
• Bree mentioned the damages are superficial, but that the rats are weird.
• The sacred bath are defunt for now because of the incident, the bath contains restorative powers
• Keys are held only by the staff and priest
• There is a teleportation circle, and a protected vault by a hallow spell
• The teleportation circle is two way
• Quinn takes a look at the visitor log, and sees that there are something weird with the rats
• Frumpple checks for footprints, and spots that the grafitti is not actually entirely accurate
• Etherea spots the trace presence of a purple mucus, and approaches Quinn about it
• Quinn suspects that it might be from an illithid or beholders
• Frumpple approaches Leah who is fishing rats out of the pool, and realises that the rats are Cranium rats and it is infected with the Coughney Phage
• If infected, the body devotes more resources to increasing intelligence but it becomes frailer
• Frumpple realises that piling Cranium Rats together is a bad idea because the swarm's intelligence becomes cumulative.
• Jin who was picking up books near the teleportation circle, triggers it.
• A mind witness enemy teleports in, and the cranium rats spill out

Initiative is rolled

• Quinn blasts the Mind Witness and frightens it, and she tries to protect Etherea but is resisted. Quinn then shoots the right pile of Cranium Rats.
• Etherea parkours across the seats and scores a sneak attack.
• The Mind witness attempts to stun and grapple Etherea but is foiled by a combination of its fright and Frumpple's paladin aura
• Frumpple attempts to yank the Mind Witness down and it successful
• Frumpple uses Flintroar as a shovel form and cuts down its stunning eye, also learning that it's an abberation.
• Frumpple yanks the Mind witness along to the corner of the room
• The 2 piles of rats close in on Quinn, but are unable to get close enough to attack
• Quinn disengages and ducks away from the rats, and action surges to take two attacks against the Mind Witness, frightening it again.
• The Mind Witness looks a bit battered now.
• Etherea sticks her short sword into the Mind Witness's central eye and her spectral sword in a follow up attack.
• The Mind Witness successfully charms Etherea into thinking that her weapon is repulsive 
• The Mind Witness successfully grapples Etherea and bludgeons her, but she uncanny dodges to reduce the damage
• Frumpple attempts twice to forcefully close the Mind Witness's eyelids, but his weapon fails to find purchase.
• Frumpple casts Compelled Duel and succeeds.
• The Mind Witness forces its condition to Frumpple, Quinn and Etherea
  
• The rats attack quin successfully but Quinn invokes Hellish Rebuke and burns it to a crisp
• The other Rats attack Quinn and successfully invade her mind, forcing her to shoot Frumpple twice
•  Quinn shakes out of Frumpple's compelled duel
• Etherea is hurt by using her Spectral edge, and managed to severely damage the Mind Witness
• Etherea finishes off the Mind Witness spectacularly by flinging her offhand dagger into it's mouth
• Frumpple helps Quinn finish off the remaining rats
• Frumpple grabs a rat for later use.

• Father Bree comes back and checks on the team
• Bree mentions that the trigger was a dispel magic that dispelled the hallow spell.
• Etherea spots that the book that the trigger was placed upon and points Frumpple to it for investigation.
• Frumpple checks in on Quinn and helps her cure any traces of the phage
• Etherea highlights that the Mind Witness might have been the culprit that broke into the Moon Temple
• Frumpple has had a history with Mind Flayers as his clan wiped out an infestation of Mind Flayers before their Elder Brain could properly take hold.
• Father Bree begrudgingly allows the Team to store the corpse of the Mind Witness in the Temple, which is closed for the day.
• Frumpple and Quinn officially welcomes Etherea as a member of the team, because of her valiant efforts in the fight. Etherea feels very happy about this.

• Etherea proposes that she cast speak with the dead with the slain Mind Witness for answers
• Quinn suggests that the Mind Witness may return and view us as an enemy and not entertain us.
• Frumpple knows that Mind Witness is an insane Beholder and suggests that it might not provide any useful answers

• Father Bree refuses to provide Quinn with any answers about sister Jin but Frumpple assists in the effort.
• Bree mentions that Jin joined the temple for around 2 years
• Sister Leah mentions that Jin may have went to Aleck

• As the Team leaves, Sister Leah asks to speak with the team in private
• Leah mentions Aleck has a pet octopus, but is a nice guy
• Aleck's master, Salvar has a pet Octopus.
• Leah and Jin might both be competing for Salvar
• Leah leaves
• The team discuss and decides to seek the opinions of Ilasera the druid, and head to the market

• Etherea manages to track the rumours down to where Ilasera is.
• The team finds the druid near the market and understands that she is helping the town to reclaim the land lost by the swamp
• Ilasera shows a magical acorn that helps with the reclamation process
• Quinn asks about Salvar and Aleck
• Ilasera thinks that Salvar is a bit too loud, but doesn't think that he should be keeping exotic pets. But he is keeping good care of animals.
• Salvar was from the destroyed town of Mulmaster
• Frumpple asks about anything out of place during Ilasera's works, as there was a pixie infestation incident in town
• Ilasera mentions that pixies are fun loving and, should see no reason to disturb well meaning humans.
• Ilasera mentions that she came across the Cranium rats but was unable to reach far into these rats.
• Quinn asks if she could speak to a cranium rat if she came across a rat in the flesh.
• Etherea reveals that Illithids could be behind these strange happenings.
• Ilasera suggests that when fighting Illithids, a direct approach would be better. There may also be intellect devourers in play.
• There could be Illithids hiding in the Flooded Forest
• Ilasera warns that revival may not be possible if the brains get devoured.
• The acorn has 6 charges, 2 for lesser restoration or 4 for greater restoration
• Ilasera leaves

• The team discuss their next move and were alerted to a squirrel animal messenger
• The message informs that there is a crime in progress and head towards Salvar's towers

• The team arrives at Salvar's residences and find an enormous octopus named Wobbles
• The team finds out that Wobbles has been enlarged magically, but is otherwise not actively hostile
• Quinn calms the guards and Frumpple heals Wobbles, and Salvar dispels the magic.
• Salvar mentions that his apprentice, Aleck has just disappeared from the scene.
• Etherea gets Salvar to show them where Aleck's living quarters are
• Find some belongings, flirty letters for both Jin and Leah
• Some drugs and a spent spell scroll
• Finds Aleck's Diary, but seems to have nothing that suggests that he has ties to Illithids.
• Salvar points out Aleck's usual haunt

• The team flips a coin to either visit the Zhentish Corners or Aleck's usual visiting spot.
• The team decides to visit the Zhentish Corners, the city's black market.

• The team arrives at the black market, and speaks with the representative at the entrance.
• Quinn enquires and understands that the drug is called Black Lotus.
• The drug owner named Clank takes a bribe that reveals that Aleck had requested the Black Lotus.
• After an hour, Aleck is revealed to be in one of the make out spots.
• The team finds Aleck unconscious on the ground
• Etherea recognises the signs of an intellect devourer attack and casts Greater restoration using the acorn.
• Aleck wakes up and answers the parties questions
• Jin dared Aleck to gigantify Mr Wobbles, and they got into a fierce argument
• Aleck mentions that Jin stole a tome regarding from other planes from Salvar 
• Aleck suggests that Jin might have gone to the Outer Ylraphon Outer
• Frumpple casts detect object and gets a ping on the tome
• Quinn returns to the Zentish corners to prepare
• Frumpple and Etherea, visits the Emberstar and obtains an experimental gem that can be activated.

• Frumpple tracks the missing tome to Ylraphon Outer, and chance upon 5 elven wizard/priest like acolytes are commanding around 12 peasants to dig into the ground
• The commoners seem to be under a spell and sometimes they snap out of it.
• The party agree to go in blazing
• Etherea chucks the experimental gem into the middle of the camp and Quinn shoots it, and it explodes violently.
• Jin gets vapourised immediately.
• Etherea slices and dices with her spectral blade
• Frumpple rushes up to Etherea and positions in front of her
• 2 acolytes cast lightning bolt, but Etherea nimbly dodges away.
• An Intellect devourer pops out of Jin's corpse and attempts to body jack Etherea, but she dodges once more.
• Tough battle, Frumpple goes down to near death
• Frumpple casts channel divinity and forces aberrations to run as far as they can on their turns
• This was a pro gamer move, as it allows the team to pick off their enemies
• Over the course of the other turns, the team defeats the intellect devourers one by one

• Within the notebook that Jin was writing in:
• Vanquo seems to be the mastermind that sent the group of intellect devourers to search for hidden treasures
• The intellect devourers do not know the full extent of the plans, but their mission was to reclaim lost treasures from the sunken temple nearby
• The temple was eaten up by the swamp
• Commoners were also been eaten up by the intellect devourers
• The plan was to slowly take over the town and excavate the area

• The team collects the dead Mind Witness from the Moon Temple
• The team visits the mayor
• Etherea explains to Mayor Carver and explain the situation
• The town recovers to how it was previously.
• Less tense and more friendly
• Sebastian helps Quinn learn how to make his fire gems, Quinn knows the exact place to place it
• Jimmy ports into town and teleports back to Episodia
• Quinn shows the team how to properly use the hot tub